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For at least two weeks more than it seemed realistic, the Flyers’ playoff hopes still had a heartbeat.

And it went fighting.

Two goals in the last 126 seconds of the game still left the Flyers short in a 4-3 loss to the New York Rangers.

Like their recent run, it was too little too late.

For the second time in the last three seasons and third in the last five campaigns, there will be no postseason for the Flyers. Their next low-percentage hope is that ping pong balls fall their way and they end up with the No. 1 pick in June’s draft.

It seemed that the Flyers’ stretch of strong play just ran out of gas. They had won four straight heading into Sunday’s game, something they had done only one other time this season. Little mistakes crept into their game and all it takes in April in the NHL is one little mistake.

Before the Flyers fell behind, they had the lead.

Anthony Stolarz, who finished with 20 saves, was tested early with a wrist shot from Kevin Hayes and the Edison native was up to the challenge.

There weren’t many opportunities in the first period, but the Flyers opened the scoring early in the second.

Jordan Weal stole the puck from New York’s Chris Kreider to force a turnover and Valtteri Filppula marched in and scored on a backhander over Henrik Lundqvist. It was Weal’s sixth point in his last five games.

“(Wayne Simmonds) and Weal both did a good job,” Filppula said. “Weal passed me the puck and they both drove into their guys so there was a lot of open space for me.”

With postseason hopes dashed, Weal may soon be sent down to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms to help them do what the Flyers couldn’t. The Phantoms have a “magic number” of six with six games left to play. They haven’t made the playoffs since 2009 when they were in Philadelphia.

In short order, the Rangers responded to the tally with one of their own. On a Rangers power play, Andrew MacDonald couldn’t clear the zone. The puck fell onto the stick of Mats Zuccarello, who fed Mika Zibanejad for his 13th goal of the season.

About three minutes later, New York took the lead. Zuccarello had another nice feed, this time to defenseman Brendan Smith, who had no trouble getting around Flyers defenseman Brandon Manning and scored his first goal as a Ranger. He was acquired from Detroit before the trade deadline for a third-round pick and second-round pick.

In the third period, the Flyers had a power-play opportunity after killing a penalty and couldn’t get themselves back in the game. In fact, they couldn’t even get a shot on goal. They finished the night 0-for-3 on the man advantage.

New York added two more goals rather quickly midway through the period.

Oscar Lindberg scored on his own rebound and Chris Kreider tipped a Derek Stepan shot behind Stolarz two minutes and nine seconds apart.

Several things ailed the Flyers along the way this season in their quest to return to the postseason. At times it was a lack of scoring opportunities, sometimes poor goaltending and others — as was the case Sunday — it was bad defensive play.

On three of the four Rangers goals, the play was helped by a failed clear or bad pass attempt from a Flyers defender.

Typically when a team is behind in the game, there’s a late push.

The Flyers’ vehicle just wouldn’t move. In the third period, they mustered only eight shots.

After shutting out the New Jersey Devils a night before and playing like their playoff lives depended on it for more than a week, they just didn’t have much left.

The rest of the season won’t hold much meaning but may be an audition.

Mike Vecchione, the Union College star who signed a one-year contract on Friday, will likely see action. Same for Roman Lyubimov, who has been a healthy scratch the last 11 games. Nick Cousins, who has missed the last 10 games with a concussion, took warmups. He should be good to return to the lineup also.